The rise of virtual events has made it easier than ever to hear top quality speakers from the comfort of your home office. Attendees, once “forced” to travel from coast to coast in order to learn from the brightest in the business, can now do so without having to travel. That’s the thinking at least.
As a result, many event professionals are asking themselves the following question: How much value do my in person conference programs still have?
This piece aims to dive deep into the true value that in person conference programs bring to 3 different categories: Event organizers, speakers and attendees.
The Value of Conference Programs to Event Organizers
Let’s start with this fact. Everything you’ve ever wanted to learn has been available in your pocket for the past 10 years. Before the pandemic, attendees at events always had access to online media resources. So what has been unique enough about event content to get them to travel despite this? There are basically two theories that I’ve heard:
- A (vocal) minority of people say that they prefer to learn in a live environment, without distractions. (To me this is akin to preferring a newspaper over digital media)
- Q&A with speakers. (I agree this is extremely valuable, but only a very small percentage of attendees engage in this.)
That’s about it. Yet, despite the lack of unique value that conference programs offer, attendees are successfully drawn to events through attendee promotion, both for big events and small events alike. Why?
It basically comes down to the power of event marketing. Conference organizers promote their speakers for their event far and wide, across targeted emails, social media, banners, and retargeting campaigns, often spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. No other form of education is promoted nearly as heavily across our feeds. By doing this, event organizers are able to do two things. First, they’re able to build FOMO for prospective attendees on upcoming content. And second, they’re subliminally conveying that all of these people that are speaking, are coming to the event. Thus, event organizers are saying by attending this event, you’ll be able to network with them and/or sell to them.
Have you ever wondered why conference programs have bloated speaker line ups with 200+ speakers? Look no further.
So regardless of the educational value, the model has worked, because more speakers begat more attendees, and more attendees begat more sponsors/exhibitors. From there, you have a happy ecosystem in which everybody is able to participate in the true value of live events….connecting buyers with sellers (and to a lesser extent connecting like minded individuals to each other). Last but not least, it’s of course worth mentioning that the more speakers and attendees and event has, the easier it is for its organizers to sell paid speaking positions.
This model worked before the pandemic, when attendees had access to all of the content online they ever needed, and subsequently…it should work post pandemic, when the truth hasn’t necessarily changed.
That is, unless there’s been a change to…
The Value of Conference Programs to Speakers
This is where it gets interesting. Speakers speak at events largely for two reasons.
- The marketing of themselves (i.e. career building), and
- The marketing of their company.
Let’s look at number 1 first. Pre pandemic, the best way for speakers to get out there in front of the industry to promote themselves was to travel to industry events. You could argue that blogs, and online media are also effective at this, however…its much easier for people to speak at industry events than it is for them to become a known online influencer.
In any case, with the massive influx of virtual events from 2021 moving forward, the opportunity for self promotion has significantly expanded. Speakers have the ability to participate in exponentially more online events, with a fraction of the amount of investment when compared against live.
Next lets look at the second type of speaker, those that are marketing their company. Similarly, these speakers have the ability to promote their organization’s thought leadership more than they ever have through the dawn of virtual events. Companies will also prefer employee participation in virtual over in person events, as it’ll be significantly cheaper (free!) and less of a distraction from their work.
So where does that leave us? If you’re an important industry meeting ground…I’d like to believe you have nothing to fear. Qualified speakers will come to your event like they always have, to connect with others…which as mentioned last week, is the primary “job” of events. If they’re already coming, its significantly less of an ask to have them participate in a session in a track room.
However, if your event has historically been content led….and is not fulfilling a need for meetings/connections, you will find it significantly harder to get speakers in the years ahead.
And if you find it hard to get speakers for a content led event, there should be significant concerns about….
The Value of Conference Programs to Attendees
Conference programs with good speakers, do carry value as a form of education for business professionals. The problem is just that the content is not any more valuable than other content that you find online. Unfortunately, it’s also:
- Less readily available, as its presented in a linear format at a specific day and time, and
- Less accessible, particularly in the case of in person events where you need to spend time and money traveling
The most amount of value that conference programs have to attendees is as follows:
- Q&A with speakers, where you’re able to ask speakers specific questions relevant to your business
- Meet/Network with the speakers once they get off stage, and
- The ability to hear from new/different speakers that are not readily available elsewhere online. The problem with this one, is that by association with that fact, they’re not going to carry as much marketing appeal.
All of this value, is dependent upon the ability of the conference program to bring in top notch speakers. And for most of us, all of this value, is also a secondary benefit of attending an event.
IN CONCLUSION
If you’re a “meeting focused” event that successfully exists as a place to connect buyers and sellers, you’re going to be able to add the same amount of value with conference programs that you were able to pre pandemic. This in turn will allow you to promote great speakers, which will in turn help bring you attendance and exhibitors/sponsors like you’ve always had.
If you’re a “content led” event, and the industry doesn’t see your event as an important industry meeting ground, you’re going to struggle to get the same level of speakers you were before COVID. And if you’re struggling to get the same level of speakers, you’re at risk of having your whole event fall apart. As a result, we’re going to see a significant transition from content led events moving from in person, to virtual formats.